8.9 Six names that disagree Krishna speaks
कविं पुराणमनुशासितार मणोरणीयांसमनुस्मरेद्यः
सर्वस्य धातारमचिन्त्यरूप मादित्यवर्णं तमसः परस्तात्
kaviṁ purāṇam anuśhāsitāram
aṇor aṇīyānsam anusmared yaḥ
sarvasya dhātāram achintya-rūpam
āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt
One who remembers the ancient seer, the ruler, subtler than the subtlest, upholder of everything, unthinkable, radiant as the sun and beyond the dark —
Explanation
Six ways of naming what is said not to admit of naming.
Ancient seer, ruler, subtler than the subtlest, upholder of everything, unthinkable, radiant as the sun. Notice that they do not agree with one another. A seer and a ruler are person-like; something subtler than the subtlest is not a person at all.
The Gita does this deliberately and often. It will not settle into either an impersonal absolute or a personal god, and it does not treat the tension as a problem needing a solution.
Going further
Word by word
- kavim
- poet
- purāṇam
- ancient
- anuśhāsitāram
- the controller
- aṇoḥ
- than the atom
- aṇīyānsam
- smaller
- anusmaret
- always remembers
- yaḥ
- who
- sarvasya
- of everything
- dhātāram
- the support
- achintya
- inconceivable
- rūpam
- divine form
- āditya-varṇam
- effulgent like the sun
- tamasaḥ
- to the darkness of ignorance
- parastāt
- beyond
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Ancient seer, ruler, subtler than the subtlest, upholder of all, unthinkable, radiant as the sun.
Six descriptions, and the fourth one — achintya, unthinkable — undercuts the other five. The verse piles up attributes and then says the thing does not admit of being thought. This is characteristic: the Gita's descriptions of the highest tend to include a clause that cancels the description.